Let's talk about the saree

It is no secret that I love hand-crafted clothes in natural fabrics preferably sourced ethically. What is also no secret is my love for traditional Indian clothing worn in ways that feel good to me. Sometimes that means wearing long kurtas featuring high slits with denim shorts, sometimes it means wearing gaghras with sweatshirts or sometimes it means wearing a kediyu (that pre-pubescent girls from the Bharvad tribe in Gujarat wear) with a lovely hand-loomed cotton gamchaa saree wrapped around a denim mini.

I literally cannot say or write enough about my love for a simple cotton saree and would pick cottons over most other (natural fabric) sarees any day of the week. I wear them everywhere from work to the pub while travelling or hiking or just chilling at home. In fact I am so obsessed with sarees and documenting saree wearing feminists that I have even started a whole new blog just focussed on sarees. These photos were taken for a post on that blog but the saree and the kediyu are so pretty that we got a lot of good pictures and I decided to use some of them here. If you are curious about the various aspect of this particular outfit or want to know about sarees, are a newbie trying to incorporate more sarees into your daily wear or just someone that likes to look at colourful photos taken in Sydney and elsewhere please free to check us out on Pleats N Pallu blog or instagram.

Saree blouses are the best crop tops

The festive season is upon us and I can't wait for Navaratri/ Durga Puja and Diwali, it's the best time of the year in my opinion. Keeping in mind the celebrations as well as the warming weather in the southern hemisphere, all my saree blouses have come out to play as crop tops. I pair traditional silk blouses as well as cholis with everything from shorts, skirts and pants to salwars and gaghras. I am so excited to wear all my blouses and get some more from my sister and go totally crazy all summer.

I wait for warm weather every year to bring out my wonderful cholis to play as you may have seen here and here. Today I celebrate the birthday of one my most favourite people, (happy birthday Mummy) by spending the afternoon in a magical garden getaway. What are you wearing this spring?

Rock n Roll in a Saree

These pictures were taken on a pre-spring fun afternoon out and feature my current favourite way of wearing a saree. This way let's me move/ dance freely,look good with heavy duty boots and/ or leather jacket and above all allows me sit on a bike. I can't wait to get more sarees and wear them more often. It sometimes astounds me when the rest of the world is so unaware of the rich, luxurious textile traditions of Indian and the a many other parts of Asia. The joy that comes from wearing handloom silk, khadi, cotton or wool is second to none. And I'd rather wear a vintage saree than a dress made in a sweatshop somewhere!

My goodie bag from home and what I wore to go get it

So the other day my Mother and Sister sent me a goodie bag with someone who was travelling to Sydney. They had a couple of hours notice and they amassed this much loot in literally minutes and had it delivered to the person who was flying into Sydney for work.

I got a beautiful ombre silk Bandhani saree, heaps of jewellery, bindis, liquid bindi in little rainbow containers to make my own designs, crochet shrug, 100% cotton yummies, a rainbow thread wrapped necklace/bracelet, all the jewellery came packed in this green silk Tibetan wallet that is my new money purse and it was beautifully packed into this Jute bag that says "Jute is Cute". I feel like the richest girl in the world!

Thank you so much Mummy and Dingy. More than the goodies it was so nice to smell and feel a little piece of home, the saree had been ironed and there were two pages of a Gujarati newspaper in it from the laundry and somehow it was so nice to see that.

I wore a camel leather embroidered hand-bag my sister gave me last year to go collect everything and just for fun there is also a picture of Sydney late last night. I am decked from head to toe in my goodies and know I look ridiculous but I don't care. HAPPY FRIDAY WORLD!

Warning: This is a picture heavy post.

Disclaimer: I am in no way bragging here, I am just happy to get something from home and I understand I am extremely lucky especially in the light of what's happening in Uttarkhand right now.